Prey to Predator
by AlterFF
Summary: The whole of the Lost has been defeated, and now the members of the Rebel Army have parted ways to assist in the mending of their homeworlds. Many years have passed since then, and now the wererabbit of the bunch is being visited by its werewolf out of the blue.


_Hello to everyone in the Disgaea fandom! After my near three year absence from this site, I have now returned with this little one-shot of mine based in the fifth game. It is meant to follow the theory that Disgaea 5 could very well be a prequel to Disgaea 1 considering several details in the game. There are still some changes I wanted to make to my style even now, so I am alright with any critique I am given on it._

 _Also... I do not own the series itself or the art which was used for the cover of this story for that matter._

 **\- Story Begin**

A brilliant star was shining down through the cloudy skies of Toto Bunny, illuminating the dense civilizations of the Netherworld. One of these settlements in particular held a grand castle which shone in the light. The structure towered over a large village of demons who were bustling through its streets. Overlooking the residents of this community, a certain wererabbit was seated on a high balcony of the castle, a somber look on her face.

As a sigh left her mouth, she shifts her gaze up toward the myriad of twinkles sprinkling the sky, 'Still so much to establish even now…'

She adjusts the white scarf around her neck as she turned her head back down toward the balcony table, her fuchsia eyes closing in a moment of thought. As a gentle breeze blew through the silence around her, ruffling her smooth, blond hair, a faint noise resounds into her rabbit-like ears from within the castle.

She perks up at the nature of this sound, her eyes opening back up, and she glances into the castle through the glass doors beside the table, 'This voice…'

She straightens up the yellow jacket around her short black and white dress. As her white bunny slippers scraped against the floor, she crosses her leg across the other, pressing her black stockings against each other.

After another minute or so of relative silence, the doors to the balcony are pulled open by a maid who also possessed rabbit-like qualities.

The maid bows to the girl, her hands clasped in front of her uniform dress, "Lady Usalia, a visitor has arrived to meet with you."

When the maid stepped aside from the entrance, the scruffy man standing behind her walks out onto the balcony.

As he took his seat across from Usalia by the table, she smiles up at her maid, "Thank you for escorting him. Could you please have some tea and cake prepared for us."

The maid nods her head in return, "Of course, Milady. I will return shortly."

After the maid closes the balcony door, leaving Usalia and the man to themselves, the wererabbit turns her head back toward him. He sat in a slouched posture, his arms resting against the frilly cloth of the table, and he kept a cheeky smile on his face. His mannerisms certainly did not betray his identity.

She returns the smile in kind, "Greetings, Zeroken. What brings someone like you back to Toto Bunny?"

He straightens himself up, his smile becoming a grin, "I just wanted to catch up with my buddies from the Rebel Army. It's been quite a while since we all split up, hasn't it?"

She nods her head in response, "A thousand years to be precise. If it were not for such a ceremonious year, I might have mistaken the ruckus near the front gates for the work of your… typical hooligan."

He averts his sight from her as he scratched at the back of his spiky, gray hair, "Was I really all that noisy down there?"

She sighs at his abashed question, "It does not take the ears of a wererabbit to overhear someone like you arguing with my guards. You were lucky that my caretakers intervened before anything else could occur."

He nods his head in response, his smile losing its nervousness, "The help was definitely appreciated. At least that was the only time I was threatened with a sword to my throat recently."

She tilts her head at him as she turned her sight down toward his ragged, gray combat garbs, "It is to be expected of guards such as my own. Someone with your… sense of fashion would draw a couple suspicious looks, especially if they just decide to walk into the Overlord's Castle like it was nothing."

He sighs at her comment, his head now drooping from his shoulders, "You have a point there, but you don't gotta be so mean about it."

* * *

A moment after Zeroken and Usalia have their initial exchange, the balcony door was pulled open by the maid once more.

She approaches the table, a set of small plates in her possession, and she sets them down onto its cloth, "Here are your refreshments, Milady."

Usalia smiles up at her maid, "Thank you for your services."

As the both of them retrieved their respective plates, the maid bows at the commendation, and she departs from the balcony, closing it off for the pair.

Usalia picks up the spoon for her cake as she looked back at Zeroken, "Now then, you mentioned beforehand that you wished to check in with our old comrades. It would explain why you arrived here on such short notice…"

Zeroken does the same for his own confection as he nodded his head at her mention, "That I did. From what I've seen so far, that demon utopia idea of yours seems to have been coming along well enough."

As they begin indulging in their treats, she lowers her sight in consideration of his comment, "You could say something to that extent. I have not had that much difficulty in maintaining the peace which my parents established on our homeworld, but past dealings with certain Netherworlds have never been the most stable. Our main export being carrots does not garner us that much regard either."

He shrugs his shoulders at her brief account, "So that explains why your guards seemed a lot more on edge than they usually are."

She nods her head at his observation, "It does not help with the deep mark which the Demon Emperor Incident has left on this place either. That is why I took it upon myself to extend the practices of the Rabbit Ninja Technique to more than just my personal vassals, so now most of my servants are skilled with it to some degree."

He crosses his arms over his chest, his smile returning from her efforts, "So that's how you guys manage your muscle. And here I was under the impression that you guys stuck to the same level of pacifism."

She shakes her head at his assumption, "Of course not. My father had his reasons for assisting in the development of that technique anyways. This world may be a gathering place for peaceful demons, but that does not mean we lack a means of defending our own denizens. We just take to a more subtle and clean method of handling any trouble."

He nods his head at her; but when a particular thought occurred to him, he raises his eyebrow at her, "Well then… What about Majorita? Did you do anything with her after you moved back here?"

She smiles to herself at his curiosity, barely stopping a snicker from escaping her lips, "Oh, I have made explicit use of her upon my return. I am grateful that she possesses her level of stamina. Being able to harvest a fraction of our carrot fields on her own has made her quite the asset to our agricultural economy."

He perks up at her explanation, his yellow eyes wide at her nonchalance, "Seriously… You're making her do that much? Seems a bit hardcore for someone like you."

Her demeanor almost falters at that moment. She averts her sight from him in reluctance, her free hand motioning down onto her right abdomen.

She looks up at him once again, her expression regaining its composure, "Considering her circumstances, there were no objections to be made, so that matters not to me. Now she must endure said labor under the spiteful watch of my maids for three-quarters of everyday… and for minimum wage."

He winces at the very idea brought up by her, "Damn… Even for the Overlord of Toto Bunny, that is surprisingly brutal. You're definitely still a demon, but your maids never really did give off that cruel kind of vibe when I showed up here."

She glances down from his comment, her eyebrows furrowing at a particular memory, "Ever since Majorita commenced her hundred day occupation of my homeworld, the subjects of this castle were treated like nothing more than dirt. Now they just see themselves as having every right to punish her however they please."

He strokes his chin as he shifted his eyes toward the interior of the castle, "Huh, so that's where all that pent-up malice came from."

She shakes the unpleasant thoughts out of her head, "Nonetheless, she has the demon paradise she so desperately seeked out. I could care less what plea comes out of her mouth from here on."

He shrugs alongside the conclusion of that subject, "If you say so…"

By that time, the pair got through about a third of the contents on their plates and in their cups.

* * *

As the sun-like star of the planet lowered into the late evening, Usalia gives Zeroken a curious tilt of her head, "So did you get to see how the others have been managing?"

He glances sidelong in a moment of thought, "I did, and they've been pretty fine all things considered. This little escapade of mine did start off at Flowerful a while ago."

She feels a warm smile come to her face, her ears perking up at his words, "I presume that Killia and Liezerota have no doubt been enjoying themselves there?"

He clicks his sharp teeth as he waved her simple question off, "They didn't waste any time at all getting hitched when they got back, so that kinda goes without saying. Even master finally decided to settle down with them again."

She nods her head at his answer, but she focuses on him again at a certain thought, "Well, they sound like they have gotten back to being one big happy family. I do wonder if Goldion ever got to be rid of that menacing armor of his?"

He shakes his head at her question, "Not really, he just sorta kept it around after taking it off. Almost like some kind of memento. Now it looks all menacing on his bedroom wall."

She returns to her treats, having gotten his words on one of their friends, "Understandable. I could only surmise that Void Dark is not in that equation."

He quivers from her words, a particular memory rushing back to him at the mere mention made by her, "You think… When he said he would let the entire Netherworlds have at him, I did not expect him to mean it."

She gives him a little nod, also slightly reeling back at his words, "How about after that then?"

He gets himself together, focusing his sight back on her, "After that, I got myself to Gorgeous. Apparently they managed to recover nicely enough after sis took over."

She nods her head at his explanation, in recollection of another one of their friends, "That is not much of a surprise from someone like Seraphina. She most likely sold the combat augmentations used to form Gorgeous Reborn, so their economic presence could have been reignited from those investments."

He returns the nod, "Makes sense. Aside from that, she's still grieving over her 'prince' being taken, so she was in a pretty sour mood when I met up with her. Her father has been trying to cheer her up from what I saw, but I don't think a harem of suitors would do much to pep her up."

She sighs to herself, her eyes closing in the process, "No surprise there either… But I am also a tad curious about the state of her father. Has he finally decided to forgo that silly disguise of his?"

When he nodded his head at her question, she composes herself, "Good, now he might actually be more willing to share all of that Hell they made for themselves. Seraphina and her family could certainly benefit in finalizing the Netherworld Restoration Project."

He straightens up his own thoughts, "Speaking of restoring Netherworlds, the old man did manage to get Scorching Flame all fixed up. It seems like Panchos and the others really did stop trying to stick his head onto a pike."

She smiles once more at his explanation, a dejected look though on her face, "Well, I am glad to hear that he has finally gotten back to climbing up the ladder."

He rests his chin down on his palm, "Yeah, and he even said that he might actually be able to start expanding his homeworld into Super Scorching Flame soon enough. The only thing that has been a bother for him otherwise are the rumors that sis has been spreading about his place to keep her stress down."

When she began pinching the bridge of her nose, her eyes closing in the process, he tilts his head at her, "Is something up?"

She sighs to herself, and she opens her eyes at him, "It is nothing. I just remembered that he would be getting to something like that eventually. I could only imagine what he would do to accomplish the kind of growth he is aiming for now."

He glances upward, in agreement to her quandary, "Yeah, not much would be too far for him."

She shifts her fingers to her temples now, "Like pestering both Seraphina and me about helping him fund something as grand as converting a Netherworld into a Giant Netherworld. I am almost certain he would resort to that."

As he nods his head at her, she shakes her thoughts away, "I swear, Sinister Genesis is the only sensible Netherworld I have ever had relations with."

He perks up at her mention, "You mean those Krichevskoy folk. Weren't they the guys who still practiced alliterative magic even up till now?"

She straightens herself up as she nodded her head at him, "While their customs may lay in older times, their status as a family of noble demons has cemented their influence throughout the entire Netherworlds."

He shrugs his shoulders at her, "Yeah, I guess."

She gestures him onward, "So what of everyone else?"

He glances down in thought again, "Well, Asagi did just kinda vanish after we separated and Christo is literally doing god-knows-what, so there isn't really much else I could say about them."

She glances up toward the sky by the end of his explanation, "Yeah, that seems about right."

As said sky shifted into an orangish hue, only about a third of each of their confections was left.

* * *

A slow darkness was replacing the light of day, but a calm burn spared the balcony of this for a instance. Said burn was emanating from a small flame which was looming closely above the palm of Usalia and below her cup. After a quick moment of heating her drink back up, she flicks her hand to the side, dismissing the fire.

She takes another sip from it; but when the expression of Zeroken faded a tad, she tilts her head at him, "So then what of you? How have you been faring since we parted ways?"

He perks up a bit at her sudden question, "Me, huh. I know that the dojo has been going great over the years, and some of my students even managed to develop their own utilizations of the Ultimate Demon Technique."

She gives him a small clap, a smile on her face, "Congratulations. I hope your work is having a big impact on the landscape of Netherworld martial arts."

He nods his head at her, but he deflates the next moment, his sight falling, "Yeah… but there was something that has been bothering me for a while now."

She glances up in thought at his conundrum, "Would that happen to relate to your own progress with the style?"

He nods his head at her, a nervous quirk to his lips, "Yeah, actually. While a lot of my students have been sharpening their skills at the rapid pace that they have, I'm still far behind from what master and bro were able to achieve. I managed to get the hang of the Final Skill, Avidya Holy Water, enough to use it on my own, but I'm not even close to having mastered something like the Ultimate Skill, Macrocosm, by this point."

She hardens her expression at him, "So are you just going to beat yourself up over it?"

He waves off her question as he shook his head at her, "Of course not. It might just be the stress of it all getting to my head. Master was the man who founded this technique before mastering every bit of it, and now I have to meet those same standards. Even bro figured out all of its skills like it was nothing."

She shakes her head at him, "It is nothing to be ashamed of. We all managed to grow in some way while we were still together. Seraphina, Red Magnus, and Christo succeeded in outright evolving their Overloads to a higher state. Even after we parted ways, it still seems like some of us have made our own broad steps in these past many years."

He tilts his head at her, noting her use of wording, "Wait… so did you get to evolve your Overload while you were ruling Toto Bunny?"

She nods her head at her, "Since the peaceful ways of my homeworld continued, I considered the possibility of it being disrupted by less than impartial demons. I figured that it would happen eventually, so I took every moment I could to push my abilities a bit further. Did you ever get the chance while heading your dojo?"

He averts his sight from her, "To be honest, I actually did manage it myself, but I would rather not get into too much detail about that."

She leans toward him, her expression turning adamant, "Well, I would like to get into more detail about it."

He sighs to himself, but he puts on a smile nonetheless, "If you so, then… I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

She giggles at his words, her hands over her mouth, and she points him toward the inside of the castle, "I will take you up on that offer. Let us make our demonstrations inside my room."

When he nodded his head at her, they stand up from their seats, leaving their empty plates and cups behind, and they make their way into the castle.

* * *

As the night took prominence over the sky, Usalia and Zeroken were walking toward the center of her grand room.

She gestures him toward her large mattress as she moved alongside him, "You may take a seat if you wish."

He shrugs his shoulders at her; and as she reached the center of her room, he makes his way to her bed, "Okay. show me what you got then."

After he plopped himself down onto her bed, She nods her head at him, and she relaxes her breath, her eyes closing in process, "Overload Skill: Fierce Regalia!"

As her eye swung open, revealing her now crimson irises, an intense aura of a similar coloration begins exuding from her being, producing a heavy rush of wind which rocked the ornate furniture of her room. She grits her teeth; and as her fangs and nails sharpened to points, she lets out a beastial growl, shaking the entirety of her room even further. After a few moments passed by, the aura begins dissipating away from her. She closes her eyes; and as her fangs and nails returned to their regular states, she clenches her fists. When the aura faded in its entirety, she opens her once again fuchsia eyes, and she loosens her fists.

As she glanced down at her palms, he whistles in astonishment, "Impressive. It's almost like bro whenever he's using that crazy form of his. You were letting loose some wild power."

She sighs to herself, and she looks back at him, "It may possess a rather destructive energy, but it is nothing more than a focused version of Murmur of Rage. Ever since Majorita cursed me with that monstrous form, the Overload it turned into merely allowed me to guide the actions of that transformation. Because of that, I worked toward attempting to gain full control over that state, allowing me to harness all of the power which it had to offer."

He gives her a thumbs-up, a confident grin on his face, "It's definitely something. I don't think you'll have to worry about opposing Overlords with that kind of power at your disposal."

She giggles to herself as she scratched the back of her hair, and she gestures him toward her position, "Do not think that flattery will make me forget your end of the deal."

He chuckles to himself as he stood up from her bed, "Eh, you got me. I tried."

She walks toward her bed; and as he made his way toward the center of her room, she sets herself down onto it.

He also relaxes his breath as he clenched his fists, and he strikes a solid pose, "Overload Skill: Unprecedented Fang!"

His form begins darting about her room at lightning speeds, producing an innumerable amount of afterimages. She flinches a bit at said movement; and when it began producing a bright flash of light, she holds her arms close to her face, shielding her closed eyes. After the light dispersed into nothing, she pulls her arms down, opening her eyes to the presence of numerous Zerokens who were standing in her room.

As Usalia stared in awe at the sight before her, the main Zeroken gestures her toward his clones, "This is the new Overload which I developed during my time as a mentor. Think of it like Superluminal Wolf on a greater scale."

Usalia watches the clones fumble around as she gave the main one a sidelong glance, "Why would something like this make you feel so embarrassed? It looks like an effective improvement to your own previous Overload."

Zeroken lets out a nervous laugh as he scratched the side of his face, "I did surpass the number of copies I could make of myself, but they only have one percent of my power now instead of ten percent like before."

As several of the clones eyed the furniture in her room, she raises her eyebrow at him, "That seems like a flaw which someone like you can work around."

He nods his head at her, his smile faltering, "I know, but I've only ever really used it to help me train my disciples, so I never did feel that confident in using it for any kind of serious combat situation."

When the clones began messing with said furniture, she sighs to herself at their conduct, "That certainly seems to be the case. Kind of like how you were back in the Rebel Army."

He shyly chuckles to himself once more, "Seriously?"

She gives him a flat look, "Yes."

She then notices a few clones crowd around a particular set of drawers; and when they reached for it, she slips her hand into her jacket. When a spoon darted right past the heads of the clones, implanting its sharpened edge into the wall in front of them, they freeze up in an instant.

As the clones backed away from the drawers, she gives Zeroken another flat look, "That does not help your case either."

He clicks his teeth at the antics of his replicas, "Alright, time to call you all off."

Zeroken swipes his arm down to the side; and when his copies vanished in the blink of an eye, he sighs to himself, "Sorry about that. Those guys can be a bit ditzy when they actually aren't in a fight."

She shakes her head at him as she stood up from her bed, "There is no need for an apology. Considering my own experience with this kind of evolution, I can understand you still needing to get used to it as well."

He scratches the back of his head, "Yeah, but I didn't mean for it to have gotten that hectic."

She waves his words off, "It is no problem, but you may have to compensate for them almost going through my clothes though."

As a light blush covered his cheeks, he glances away from her, "I'll keep that in mind then."

When his sight returned to her, he points her down toward her attire, "Now that I'm seeing you like this, I just noticed that you decided to change out of that little playboy bunny outfit of yours."

She grabs the hem of her dress, "You are correct. A while after I returned to my home, my caretakers took it upon themselves to design new garbs for my coronation as Toto Bunny Overlord. Since I was also growing a bit, they even refitted my jacket for me."

He raises his eyebrow down at her, "Did that growing also involve you losing that verbal tic of yours?"

She shuffles her feet around as she nodded her head at him, "It is a rather common habit for the younglings of us wererabbits. One which usually ends up being grown out of through our puberty."

He returns the nod; and when his eyes caught sight of the dark sky through her balcony door, he turns toward it, "Huh, so that's what happens. I was wondering why it disappeared. Anyway, it looks like it's getting pretty late. I think I'll leave before I feel like I've overstayed my welcome."

She gives him another warm smile, "Alright, it has been nice getting to speak with you. Don't feel like you aren't welcome after today though. You can visit whenever you like, and I could even treat you to some of my personally made mochi."

He tilts his head back down at her, "You know how to make mochi?"

She crosses her arms over her chest, her look turning into a scowl, "Did you think I carried around a giant mallet just to bash some heads in?"

He shrugs his shoulders at her response as he turned back toward the front door of her room, "Point taken. Okay, I'll be going now. Wouldn't want your guards to come up trying to stab me thinking I was doing something unnecessary."

He begins walking toward the door; but when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his chest from behind, he glances back downward, noticing her halting him in his tracks, "Usalia…"

As a light blush covered her cheeks, she presses herself up against his back, "Please, Zeroken. Do not get yourself into too much trouble out there."

He smirks to himself at her request, "You know us demons can't make promises like that. An idiot like me especially wouldn't be able to keep it."

She releases him from her embrace; and as he made his way out of her room, she places her hands over her chest, a look of worry crossing her expression, 'I know.'

 **\- Story End**

 _So there you have it. My first story for the Disgaea section of this site which surprisingly does not have that many stories for its fifth game despite how popular it seemed to have gotten. I hope that this small fanfic of mine was enjoyable and that you make whatever comment you like about its quality. It would be highly appreciated if you did that._

Reference Notes

 _) Considering that this is a series filled with references, it might not be a surprise that the new Overloads of Usalia and Zeroken also have this logic applied to them._

 _) If any of you have seen No Game No Life, you could think of Fierce Regalia as similar to the Blood Destruction ability which the werebeasts in that series have._

 _) With the numerous Naruto references already inside the game, Unprecedented Fang can be seen as the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu to the Shadow Clone Jutsu of Superluminal Wolf._

 _) Also, since the Netherworld from the first game was never really given a name unlike the ones in the later games of the series, I decided to call it Sinister Genesis._


End file.
